The National Association for Bikers with a Disability prepares for rally

RICK Hulse, the chairman of Urmston-based the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD), is gearing up for a major event.

It is holding its 23rd rally, You’ve Been Nabbed, at Astle Park, Chelford from May 9 – 11.

It will feature 20 bands, three discos, a real ale bar and a Comedy Road Show. Funds raised will go towards adaptations and the adaptation grant scheme where money is awarded to disabled motor cyclists to adapt their bikes.

The NABD was set up in 1991 to help disabled people to ride motorcycles, scooters and trikes.

It was formed after, Rick’s brother and sister-in-law helped a man who had lost a leg in an accident to ride again.

A successful fundraising drive was launched and this prompted several other disabled people to contact the group asking whether it was possible for them also to ride motorcycles.

Within 12 months the NABD had more than 100 members.

Later that year, Rick was knocked down on the pavement by a hit and run driver.

He spent six weeks in hospital and almost needed an amputation.

Rick, 54, said: “I had been riding bikes since my teens. “Before the accident I had actually built a trike, only the 64th to be registered.

“I found it difficult to ride at first because my right leg didn’t work. “I even used an upside down crutch to operate it.

“We have come a long way since then.”

By 1992 the NABD had gained charitable status. Its membership has now mushroomed to 7,500, 80 percent disabled.

Rick, who currently rides a 900cc Kawasaki trike, said: “A bloke with cerebral palsy uses an off road quad cycle we adapted, to walk his dog.”

A paraplegic had invented a sidecar to take a wheelchair. Some NABD members with amputations ride competitively.